Apples After The First Frost

In this autumnally golden northern most Eden, apple trees are as common as mini vans in Utah. The streets are lined, the yards are filled and the fields are littered with apple trees. For the past several weeks, we’ve taken advantage of this surplussed asset of fresh fruit…. but, though decent, the apples always seemed a wee bit off…. until this week. Suddenly, every apple is significantly crispier. What brought about the sudden change? Well, every wise Norrland apple grower could tell you that you wait to pick your apples after the first frost, for the temporary freezing of the apple changes the apple’s interior texture to become crispier. As the cold rolls down from the western mountains, bringing with it chilly wind, freezing fog and icy rain, the seemingly unsuitable weather conditions actually improve the quality of the apples.
Yes, there is an object lesson in this.
Going into this week I was waltzing along happily, like an apple happily growing in the October sunlight…. and then Tuesday hit. Not only was it the first legitimately cold day of the season, but was a day that literally crashed and burned. We left in the early morning to travel to a lesson with a member to be present for, which fell through, and that was just the beginning. I will not go in depth, but everything on our schedule disintegrated to dust and not a soul seemed open to listen to our message. It was cold, dark, and yes, the apples on the trees were frozen.

The next day, I took a bite of an apple from a tree and the difference and it’s taste was remarkable….. and along with it, the difference in the day was remarkable! We hardly had much time to knock on doors because it seemed like everyone was letting us in to teach them, we found some truly amazing people, an investigator received a firm spiritual impression that the Book of Mormon is true and wants to be baptised, and you know…. ending the day with a member meal is always nice. Just as it takes the first frost to improve the apples’ taste, it takes the horrible glum unsuccessful days to make the good days valued.
Anyhow, only three more of these blog posts left.

Taking a photo of a selfie. Notice Erik in the photo, holding the camera. 🙂